Van Persie relieved to end goal drought

The Dutchman had gone ten domestic games without a goal but he won and converted a penalty to make the points secure at the Britannia Stadium after Michael Carrick had opened the scoring.

Van Persie ran to the bench to celebrate with manager Sir Alex Ferguson and explained he felt he should celebrate with all his team-mates.

"It was an important point in the game. I had to score that one and thankfully it went in so after that the relief of a couple of weeks came out," he told Sky Sports. "I wanted to celebrate it with everyone, with the players, with the staff, all the players involved even on the bench because they have been great with me from day one.

"Even when it was sometimes a little bit harder they still believed in me and they still support me and help me wherever they can so that's why I wanted to join them."

Ferguson, a striker himself in his playing days, was delighted to see his major summer signing back on the scoresheet

"You go through spells when you don't score where you never think you're ever going to get a goal and then when you are scoring you think you're never going to miss," he said. "Today was an important goal.

"He did really good work from Wayne's pass to get brought down for the penalty. The ball moved off the spot two or three times, the composure to settle himself down and the penalty kick was a perfect penalty. Low, hard, straight into the corner - great penalty."

On Van Persie's celebration, he added: "He nearly killed me. He forgets I'm 71. But that was a great celebration because it brought the emotions of the fans and the players together, everybody could celebrate that."

Wayne Rooney, who played in a midfield role the afternoon, is hopeful Van Persie can now kick on and help fire United to the title.

"As a football player, as a striker and a goalscorer, you think every player in the world has had a few games in a row where they weren't scoring," he said. "Robin's kept his head down, he's worked hard and thankfully today he's got his goal.

"Hopefully that'll kick him on because he'll be a massive player in the next few games for us."